FAA: Nashua air control tower to be closed

149 towers across country closing because of budget cuts

Nashua's busy air traffic control tower will be going dark in a few weeks. It's one of 149 towers the Federal Aviation Administration is closing because of budget cuts from the sequestration.

There are nearly 65,000 takeoffs and landings each year at Boire Field, everything from flight lessons to business deliveries.

The biggest impact will be on the people who work in that tower. If nothing changes in Washington, they'll be out of work sometime next month.

"We have seven air traffic controllers in the tower who will all be looking for jobs, apparently, in about two weeks," said Royce Rankin, manager of Nashua's Airport Authority.

For this small but busy transport hub, the layoffs could hurt business and diminish revenue.

Mayor Donnalee Lozeau called the sequestration cut a huge disappointment, particularly because the FAA just paid to redo the runway.

"I mean, all-in, that's a $23 million project, and now to have the tower closing, it just doesn't make good sense to me," said Lozeau.

Airport officials said going without air traffic controllers will make the roughly 65,000 annual takeoffs and landings more dangerous.

"There's a varying degree of speed differences between the aircraft that are operating in here right now. With the tower it's no problem because the controllers tell them what traffic they're following and they position them so that the separation remains safe," said Rankin.

Along with fixed-wing aircraft, 17 jets operate out of Nashua along with multiple helicopters.

"Nashua's a fairly busy airport. I think there's actually a pretty good need for the tower there," said Rob Holland with Rob Holland Ultimate Air Shows.

"I opened this tower 25 years ago, and it's probably the toughest day of my life today because I'm watching something that I started going away -- it's not a good feeling," said Rankin.

For airport managers, the biggest fear is a mid-air collision. They said that happened twice here before air traffic controllers went on the job in 1988.

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